Robotech #6
Antarctic Press (January, 1998)
COLORING: ARNie
Robotech Masters Aftermath: “Rolling Thunder” part 3
WRITER/ARTIST: Fred Perry
LETTERER: Joeming Denn
EDITOR: Doug Dlin
Prototype 001: “Tigercat” part 4
WRITER/ARTIST: Ted Nomura
LETTERER: Ben Dunn
In the main story Dana is forced to take point for an attack on her own forces. However, her enslavers didn’t count on her ingenuity as she finds a way to leave the battle due to her directive to keep the Masters from harm…by overprotecting them. Khane tries to go around that by having the directive removed…which is just what she planned. During the battle Dante learns they’re making Dana work for them (but not how) and Louie and Bowie help them out in Big Moe, and now they’re following the fleeing Masters’ forces back to Khane’s base.
What they got right: Dana’s working her away the “three laws of Zentraedi” they stuffed in her is a fit of genius, and may actually save this story in the end. Right now the issues of this storyline are precariously close to leaving my collection but I like how this twist goes. There’s little of Khane as one of his people leads the actual attack and watching her fail to control Dana the way she hoped was fun to see. We also see the remaining 15th are still a good team even on different groups.
What they got wrong: I’m kind of curious, and granted I’m not sure the story has time for it, but what happened to the Master refugees? Bowie hasn’t even mentioned Musica in passing even to say he misses her. It might be interesting to have some of the refugees joining the RDF against this fanatic group, even if only to prepare to defend their new home from the coming Invid invasion. I’d find more interesting drama there than Dana under RoboCop style control.
In the continuingly unnecessary back-up story Roy finally finds out why Lisa wanted to join this fight (she wanted some combat experience, which I do like), and they have a nice friend moment discussing what different color roses mean to Roy as a gift, and why only Claudia gets a red rose. It’s a nice scene before Focke launches his attack (though I could have done with out Lisa trying to see how many times she could say “Focke and Fokker” without cursing, which also speaks to the poor name choice for the current threat) but this story really is suffering from being so short.
What I thing overall: Like I said, we may yet get redemption for the 15th’s story, so hopefully I can give it a positive recommendation when we’re done. Leave it to Dana to make a miracle out of a crap situation.